Climate Change Update

Developing countries demand clarity and transparency of financial support from developed countries

India wants a report card on climate finance contributions coming from developed countries

By: Uthra Radhakrishnan

Finance and technology transfer from the developed to the developing countries could be the deal breaker for an agreement in Paris. In an open ended consultation on means of implementation, Bernaditas Muller, head of the Philippine delegation, a key member of the powerful like-minded developing country group (LMDC) said developing countries would take on GHG emission reductions if and only if developed countries provided clarity of support through financial and technological transfers.

Parties will negotiate in formal ‘contact groups’ in order to start the text drafting process

By: Uthra Radhakrishnan

With just few negotiating days and hours left in the year for parties to arrive at a draft text of a new agreement in 2015, the question of whether negotiations would continue in an informal format or move into more formal discussions hung thickly in the air. This was cleared last evening in a mid-week stock taking session that threatened to go over time.

The demand was loud and clear from developing countries in the opening session of the first climate change meeting of the year, where parties from more than 180 countries had gathered to begin the important process of drafting an agreement to be signed in to place by 2015 amongst other issues. Every developing country group reiterated that the new agreement should be under the existing Convention that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. They demanded that the Convention should neither be rewritten nor should it be reinterpreted.